Starting tonight, the Red Sox will play 20 of their next 23 games (in 24 days) against teams that figure to be playoff contenders this season. ...

May 3- 6 Angels
May 7- 9 Yankees
May 10-12 Blue Jays
May 14-16 at Tigers
May 17-18 at Yankees
May 19-20 Twins
May 21-23 at Philadelphia
May 24-26 at Tampa Bay

Come May 27, the season will be 30 percent over and the Sox will know whether they are contenders or frauds.

There is probably some middle ground between those two choices, but there's little arguing with the fact that this is a very important month.

Is it too early to give up on the 2010 Red Sox? NO!, say 54.1% voters in this Globe poll.

Dear 54.1%:

Then would you guys truly give up? Don't go to any more games at Fenway. Don't call any radio station. Don't post anything at any website. Have nothing to do with the team. The season is over, right? If you're giving up, GIVE UP!

Dear 54.1%:Then would you guys truly give up? Don't go to any more games at Fenway. Don't call any radio station. Don't post anything at any website. Have nothing to do with the team. The season is over, right? If you're giving up, GIVE UP!

Fenway has always been my favourite park. Even... you know when. The first time I was there I just could not get over how beautiful it was. I had seen it on TV so many times but it was like I had never seen it before.

So I just was using the Google translate tool and translated this page into French (and back to English). It's pretty funny to read our comments translated into French. Unfortunately, my French is sort of junior high level vocabulary, but still amusing. Our comments seem so much more erudite in French!

Enjoy your trip to Fenway. It is amazing. I was awestruck when we first walked in. I felt a lot like Rudy's dad..."This is the most beautiful sight these eyes have ever seen." Beyond that, the atmosphere is unbelievable. There is a sea of fans and it is impressive.

OK, now I cannot turn off the damn translater. Every time I switch a web page or refresh, I get a toolbar at the top asking if I want to translate. Arrggh. That's what I get for playing around with things.

Swisher hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth -- leaving his arm up longer than the State of Liberty -- Chicago rallied to win. And as far as Swisher's celebration, Guillen said that's just the kind of person Swisher is.

"That's the way he is. Good for him, enjoy it," Guillen said. "I wish he could do that for me, because he wasn't a very good player for me. He was very bad for me."

I love annual town meeting, though this one was frustrating at times. It easily could have been an hour shorter.

One of the big items was a petition to close one of our two public libraries and there was lots of organizing around opposing that. A guy got up (big proponent of keeping the library open) and made a motion to pass over the question. If passed it would be tabled dead. People who came to oppose the closing were audibly upset at that and refused to pass over the question, so we had to hear half an hour of people going on about it while clearly a massive majority would clap after each one. Move the question!(/rant)

Watney said the concussion has left her feeling “foggy” and with a headache, but she’s on the mend. She said she hopes to get the OK to return to work soon because she’s going “stir crazy” in her apartment.

When asked if it was a “Three Stooges” or athletic accident, Watney said “probably more” Three Stooges.

The library will stay open. The guy who started the petition to close it had some interesting points. He's lived here his whole life (61yo). We're a town of 7500 w/ 2 full public libraries. We also have a (small) college in town with a library open to townies. We just spent 3-4 million renovating the one in town. This one in the village of Housatonic (which periodically wants to secede from Great Barrington) will need 1-2 million for renovations/ADA issues in the next few years. We voted down replacing a 22yo fire truck, so we clearly have some budget concerns.

It sounds like all the towns around here (and probably almost anywhere these days). Not enough money, and difficult choices about where to cut: schools, library, public safety, infrastructure? It's terrible.

The libraries are about 4 miles apart. A big part of it is historical identity. Housatonic is a village with a strong identity. The library there has been open for at least 100-something years. If Housatonic loses the library it loses a lot of its village identity subsumed in the larger town of GB.